Today’s SAT

[Anonymous]

My kid (a junior) took it for the first time yesterday after studying this summer. He felt like the difficulty aligned with the practice tests he took. I guess we’ll see how it went on Sept 5.

[Anonymous]

we ended up going to Maine in October of senior year for an SAT seat and a college visit. A friend went to Chicago!

[Anonymous]

My kid (a junior) took it for the first time yesterday after studying this summer. He felt like the difficulty aligned with the practice tests he took. I guess we’ll see how it went on Sept 5.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that is quite true. I paid $5000 for a private tutor to help DS improve his score. It wouldn't have improved if he didn't have some basic level of intelligence, but he's in a better position than someone whose parents could not hire a tutor and had his same basic level of intelligence. The test is still slanted towards the rich, which is unfortunate.


Affluent students who can afford private tutoring/prep do have some advantage for standardized tests, but the money, time, and parental availability necessary to become a recruitable athlete or rack up impressive sounding extracurriculars or internships for “holistic review” favors the wealthy even more.

I totally get and don't deny that this is the case for sports and certain other activities. My kid's most impressive EC is a leadership position on robotics team, which we have generally not incurred any expenses in relation to. We had to pay for his transportation to worlds, but his team had sponsorships to fund kids who could not afford it. I think this is something that varies EC to EC, and there is not uniformity on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, here are some of the vocal words kids on reddit say were super hard: foment, attrition, sporadic, pervade, supersede, pretext, conjecture

We did a ton of vocab, focusing on words that websites said were critical for the SAT. None of those were on it! Hopefully my kid knew them!

Other than foment (maybe) does anyone else think these wards are tough for college-bound teens? (Serious question - not being snarky.)

There was one more really hard word that I didn't know but have forgotten it. So this isn't a complete list.

[Anonymous]

Other than foment (maybe) does anyone else think these wards are tough for college-bound teens? (Serious question - not being snarky.)

No, not really. I myself did not know foment, but the others seem like words that teens would generally know, although not use in everyday conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, here are some of the vocal words kids on reddit say were super hard: foment, attrition, sporadic, pervade, supersede, pretext, conjecture

We did a ton of vocab, focusing on words that websites said were critical for the SAT. None of those were on it! Hopefully my kid knew them!

Other than foment (maybe) does anyone else think these wards are tough for college-bound teens? (Serious question - not being snarky.)

There was one more really hard word that I didn't know but have forgotten it. So this isn't a complete list.

Wholly dependent on context clues and question asked. The test does not say: Define foment. You’d need the passage and actual question to answer your question.

[Anonymous]

What is a SAT forgiving curve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is a SAT forgiving curve?

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD feels so defeated. After waiting 30 minutes extra to be checked in due to long lines she had a WIFI outtage towards the end of the 2nd harder math section and half way through the wifi never returned and after all that she was told she had no recourse except to have the test cancelled!

There are no September seats left in our region and now she's scrambling to find a seat for October or November.

I am soo frustrated with the College Board and this whole rat race! There is no SAT at her school so we were counting on this.

What was the testing site?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, here are some of the vocal words kids on reddit say were super hard: foment, attrition, sporadic, pervade, supersede, pretext, conjecture

We did a ton of vocab, focusing on words that websites said were critical for the SAT. None of those were on it! Hopefully my kid knew them!

Other than foment (maybe) does anyone else think these wards are tough for college-bound teens? (Serious question - not being snarky.)

My kid has a 4.0 GPA and rigorous, college-bound coursework, and I was shocked to see what vocab words he didn't know when we studied.

[Anonymous]

August SAT is the hardest digital sat ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is what my DC did:

Self studied Khan Academy and took the test June of sophomore year (this was DC’s idea to get a feel for the test). Got a 1440.

Took a prep course fall of junior year timed to the November test. This was due to summer activity that DC was away from home most of the summer. Goal was to align prepping for the test with the PSAT.

Signed up for the December test because we know that some students just do better the second time taking it back to back.

NMSF score on PSAT
1490 SAT in November
1540 SAT in December (770 M and V)
35 ACT in December (only specific prep for the ACT was a book and onetime tests)

DC worked hard studying for the test.

Done

Congrats to your DC. Did your DC do Khan or other similar self-study to prep or a third-party Princeton Review if will to share?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD feels so defeated. After waiting 30 minutes extra to be checked in due to long lines she had a WIFI outtage towards the end of the 2nd harder math section and half way through the wifi never returned and after all that she was told she had no recourse except to have the test cancelled!

There are no September seats left in our region and now she's scrambling to find a seat for October or November.

I am soo frustrated with the College Board and this whole rat race! There is no SAT at her school so we were counting on this.

What was the testing site?

Not PP but the line at Centreville was very long according to my DD. They started the test pretty late. It was even longer if you weren’t a FCPS student.

[Anonymous]

Thought I'd bump and add on now that Aug SAT scores are out.

DD (Class of 26) thought the test was about the same as her first attempt back in the Spring, with the math portion being just a bit easier. But she felt more prepared (actually studied some and did two practice tests). Musta worked; raised the score 50 points and put herself in the highest category for merit at the SEC schools she's interested in.

Hope others had success too!

[For those looking for an Oct seat, there are still spaces in the RVA area -- I would recommend either the Mechanicsville or Tucker HS, as they have easy interstate access. Massaponax and Caroline Co HS also have seats and are closer to NoVA.]